Chapter 4: Stryker
VIN HQ, Heliport 1:43 AM
"Well here we are. VIN Head Quarters." Draco said, taking off her headset and getting out of the chopper.
Thrax did the same. Draco noticed two men running towards them.
"Great." She muttered. "My father's lackeys."
"Commander Draco ma'am." One of them asked.
"Yes?" She replied.
"The Chief would like to see you in his office right now. Would you please follow us?"
"No, I'll go there myself. I don't need to be escorted by his two slaves thank you very much. C'mon Thrax."
Draco and Thrax walked into the main building. When they arrived at her father's office Draco asked Thrax to wait outside.
Draco opened the door to the office.
"DRACO!" Her father yelled when he saw her enter the room. "I GAVE YOU A DIRECT ORDER NOT TO KILL SHANE AND YOU DID NOT COMPLY WITH IT! DO YOU KNOW THAT YOU ARE IN DIRECT VIOLATION OF MISSION PROTOCOL?"
"Yeah, I know dad."
"Don't call me that here. You are to refer to me as sir when you are in my presence here."
"What ever."
"Don't give me that shit Draco. You damn well how to act here."
"Yes sir."
"Aside from fucking up the mission you also disobeyed me by not killing that other deadly virus, am I correct?"
"Yes sir. You are correct."
"My question for you Draco is why? Why would you do this to me?"
"Because DAD, you never let me get close to anyone outside of the organization. Through out my own life I've been forced to kill people I care about and I'm sick of it. I'm not going to do it anymore and I don't care what kind of fucking rules I'm breaking in the process. I deserve to have a life outside of VIN and you should know that."
"Draco, you have never had a problem with this since you started doing it. You are the top agent in the organization, doesn't that mean anything to you?"
"No, not anymore it doesn't. I used to think that being the best was all that life had to offer but I was wrong."
"I bet this shit your giving me has something to do with that virus that you just couldn't kill, am I correct?"
"Look. This one is different. He's kind, fun loving, evil, destructive, interesting, not to mention he's got to be the cutest guy I've ever met in my entire life."
"And how long have you know this guy?"
"About 24 hours, sir."
"24 HOURS? 24 HOURS! YOU'VE KNOWN A GUY FOR ONLY 24 HOURS AND YOU'RE ALREADY HEAD OVER HEALS FOR HIM? WHAT THE HELL HAVE YOU BEEN DOING?!?"
"That's really none of you damn business."
"I'm your father and I have a RIGHT to know!"
"No you don't, you've never had one and you never will!" Draco yelled as she punched her father in the jaw. Her father doubled back and fell on his desk, breaking it in half. He put his hand to his face and stood up, shocked and angered.
"THAT'S IT, I'VE HAD IT WITH YOU! YOU INSUBORDINATE CHILD!" He screamed as he slapped her hard in the face. Draco took the blow and didn't move.
"Striking a superior officer can get you Court Marshaled you know!" He yelled.
"Not if I'm no longer an officer."
"That's right. Then I can have you for assault."
"Fine by me!" Draco screamed as she kicked her father into the wall. "They can also have me for murder."
Draco took her sniper rifle that hung from a strap on her back and looked through the sight. Draco saw her father's terrified face look up at her. She pulled back on the trigger and fired. The bullet went through her father's head, killing him instantly before his head exploded from the impact. There was blood all over the wall and the floor. Draco turned around, walked out the door and didn't give it a second thought.
"What the hell happened in there?" Thrax asked.
Draco grabbed Thrax's hand and led him down the hallway. "We'll talk about it later. For now we have to get to the supply building."
"Why, what's there?"
"Not what Thrax, who."
When Draco and Thrax entered the supply building they saw eight guys, dressed in black and fully decked out with weaponry. They all looked up when they saw Draco.
"Commander!" One of them yelled and ran over to her.
"Diego." Draco said. "I knew you guys would be here."
"What's up Drac?"
"We've got to get out of here, now. I'm no longer with VIN."
"You mean we're going free lance?"
"Yeah."
"Hey guys." Diego shouted to the other seven. "We're going free lance!"
There were cheers from the back of the room.
"So Draco, who's the dude?"
"Oh. I'm sorry. Diego this is Thrax. Thrax, this is Diego, my second in commander for Stryker Team Alpha. I'll introduce you to the others later."
Thrax and Diego shook hands.
"Nice to meet you Thrax."
"You too, Diego."
"So D, what's our status?"
"Okay Draco. The boys and I fully loaded up our four attack choppers and the transport chopper since we thought that you came back for a big mission with us. But that isn't the case since we're going free lance, right?"
"Well actually we are going to do a big mission together but first we've got to leave."
"Right. Okay boys! Fire up the choppers, we're moving out."
The seven team members grabbed the last of the supplies and ran outside to get the five helicopters started.
"So is it alright if I ask why we have to leave so quickly?"
"I killed my father."
"Damn."
"I'll explain later, let's go."
Draco, Thrax and Diego ran outside. Diego ran to the co-pilot side of the transport chopper. Thrax and Draco separated into different attack choppers. As the helicopters began to take off, about 25 armed men ran out of the main building and opened fire on the choppers.
"To Attack Teams 2-4, this is Attack Team 1. Your orders are to return fire. Kill them all. Over and Out." Draco ordered to the other choppers over her headset.
All four attack choppers opened machine gun fire on the group of guards. Over the whir of the blades, the team couldn't hear the screams of their victims as the fell to the ground in a bloody heap but it didn't matter because it was all over in a few seconds.
"Good work team. I'm sending you guys coordinates for our next destination. They should appear on each of your overhead monitors in a few seconds. As you all know, we've broken off from VIN and gone free lance. The reason for this is the murder of my father. All of you Strykers know about the problems that I've been having with him over the years and to put it quite frankly, I was just sick of it. I killed him and I enjoyed it too." The Stykers smiled as they listened to their commander's communication through their headsets. "I know we've all been together since we joined this organization many, many years ago and we're not going to let a minor set back like this stop us. I have some connections with black market arms dealers who owe me a few favors. Once we run out of weapons and supplies, I'll have them hook us up with new ones. We'll take down anything and anyone that gets in our way, including the other Stryker VIN teams. I hope that you're all with me, as you always have been." There was pause. "Our first free lance victim will be a Frank Detorri. You all have his current coordinates so sit back, relax and enjoy the ride. We'll go over mission objectives, as well as a few other things I would like to touch upon when we arrive. I'll talk to you again when we get there. Good night guys." Draco said as she cut the communication.
Somewhere in Providence, Maine 6:37 AM
"Draco! Draco!" A voice yelled into Draco's headset. "Draco, wake up."
"Huh, what?" Draco said drowsily into the receiver. The voice belonged to Diego. "Hey, what's up Diego?"
"I'm going to give the order to set the choppers down, if I get authorization from you first."
"Yeah, sure. You can give the order. I mean if I fell asleep, I can only imagine how the rest of the team is feeling."
"Sure thing commander." Diego said.
Draco switched off the headset and dozed back off to sleep.
Same location 9:15 AM
"Hey there sleeping beauty."
Draco opened her eyes and saw Thrax looking down on her. She leaned forward and they kissed.
"Hey baby, what'd I miss?"
"Not much. Your team landed the choppers and set up a temporary campsite. Nothin new other than that babe."
"Okay." Draco replied as she sat up and rubbed her eyes. Draco noticed that she had been sleeping on the ground and that Thrax had rolled up his coat and let her use it as a pillow. Draco grabbed his coat, dusted it off and gave it too back to him. Then she sat down next to him and rested her head on his shoulder. Thrax put his arm around her.
"So Drac, when did you meet him?" A voice said.
Draco looked across the campsite and saw Diego, sitting on the ground, drinking coffee.
"While I was on my last mission Diego."
Diego smiled and sipped his coffee.
"Yo D!" One of the Strykers called. "I checked out all of the choppers, they're good. None of them sustained any damage last night."
Diego nodded his head in reply.
"Oh yeah." Draco said, standing up. "Could all of you guys come over here please?"
The rest of the Strykers stopped whatever they were doing and came over to the campsite.
"Okay. I guess in all of the commotion last night I forgot the introductions boys. This cute ass hunk of deadly virus that I was just sitting next to is Thrax, my boyfriend so to speak."
All of the Strykers waved at Thrax and muttered an exhausted "Hey."
"Okay. Thrax I'd like to introduce you to the Strykers."
All of the Strykers had green skin, red eyes and had a resemblance to lizards. They were all of the same species but it was easy to tell one Stryker apart from another.
"First off, there's my second in command, Diego. I know you've already met him. The short guy on the left with the scarlet colored braid is Demo, our explosives and demolitions expert. The burly guy next to him with the short black hair is Rip, our heavy weapons expert. Rip operates the heavy machine gun for the team and provides suppression and cover fire. The other burly guy next to him with the long black hair is his brother, Spike. Spike's our mechanical engineer and he also accompanies Rip on the heavy machine gun if we need more cover fire. The guy next to him with the blue ponytail is Shade. Shade is one of our lead sniper riflemen. His partner, the guy with the gold ponytail, is Raven. The sleek and stealthy looking guy over there is Zen. Zen is our special intelligence and tactical espionage officer. Last but not least is the guy with the short brown hair is Xion. Xion is our computer expert and strategist. Every member of the team has weapons and martial arts training and could easily do the other ones job with almost no difficulties." Draco concluded.
"Damn. I'm very impressed baby. I really am." Thrax said with a somewhat speechless expression on his face. Then Thrax grinned and laughed maniacally. "Mmm, yes. This is going to make things so much easier."
"That reminds me Draco." Diego said.
"Yeah, what's up?"
"What exactly is our next job going to be?"
"Well I think that Thrax can explain this one a lot better then I can. Take it away baby."
"You got it. Well, this next job that you guys are gonna pull is very simple. I know you've done it many times before but this is gonna be special. Yeah." Thrax said, walking around the campsite with his deadly claw twirling in the air. "Now get this. I normally would do this myself but since I have had such good luck, your help will be needed. Your job is to help me invade and kill a certain body baby. Yeah. This body has caused me a lot of trouble and I did take it down, or at least I would have…"
Thrax stopped dead in his tracks. His expression turned from one of content to one of pure anger and rage.
"IF IT WASN'T FOR THAT DAMN IMMUNITY COP, OSMOSIS JONES!" He shouted as he turned around to face the Strykers.
Thrax's anger was building as his body became engulfed in flames. Thrax took a few deep breaths and took a few seconds to regain his composure. The flames subsided.
"So when we get in that body baby, we're going to give Jones a world of pain and suffering before we take down him and his body."
"So let me get this straight Thrax." Diego said. "We're going to invade Frank, torture Osmosis Jones and then kill them both?"
"Almost, almost but you're missing something. We're not just going to torture Jones. We're going to bring absolute terror to the city. I will kill Jones but you're part in this gig is setting the stage for the terror."
"So what exactly do you call what we're going to do?"
"The way I think of it is revenge. Sweet revenge."
"Sounds fun." Xion said. "But, there are tons of ways to kill a body. How are you planning on doing it?"
"You see this?" Thrax said taking the DNA bead out of his pocket and holding between two of his claws. "This here little DNA bead comes from my last target, Frank's daughter Shane. This very important little sucker was taken form her Hypothalamus gland, in her brain. What we're going to do is take over the brain and cause a deadly fever by stealing this baby. Once it's gone the body's temperature goes haywire and once it hits 108 degrees our target will already be half way to Heaven."
"How many bodies have you killed?" Xion asked.
"I dunno. Maybe around thirty. I've taken them down by myself with my personal record holding at about 32 hours." Thrax replied with a sneer.
"Nice. As a team, our record is about 24. We've done less but it all averages out to 24 hour kill time."
"So, do you boy's think you can pull this off?" Thrax asked menacingly.
"Yeah, we can pull it off. We can pull it off easy." Diego replied.
"Excellent. Xion, get a plan of action together and run it by me before we enter Frank." Thrax ordered.
"Sure. No problem."
"Okay guys, I guess you've got some downtime. Enjoy yourselves." Draco said with a smile. "Nice job Thrax. You could be a team commander if you keep it up."
Draco elbowed Thrax lightly in the chest.
"Funny."
"No I'm serious. You could be, if you wanted too."
"Nah, baby I'm not really a team player."
"Oh, okay. But if you ever have a change of heart, you know where to go." Draco said as she walked off to go work with Xion on the invasion and attack strategies.
Thrax grabbed a cup of coffee and sat back down. The two snipers, Shade and Raven sat down on either side of Thrax.
"So Thrax, you two gotten it on yet?" Raven asked.
"I don't see why that's any of your business." Thrax replied, taking a sip of his coffee.
"Aw, c'mon. You can tell us." Shade said, elbowing Thrax in the arm.
Thrax looked as if he was about to get up and deck the two of them. Diego noticed this and came over.
"What the hell are you two doing?" Diego asked with his arms crossed.
"Aw, nothing D. We're just getting better aquatinted with our new hombre, that's all." Raven replied.
"You two are pestering him about Draco, aren't you?"
"No D. What ever gave you that idea?" Shade asked innocently.
"Well from the looks of it your new hombre looks as if he's gonna kill you two and honestly I'm not going to stop him." Diego said, grinning.
Thrax stood and extended his deadly claw. He then pointed it at Shade and Raven.
"Aw shit, man. We were just kidding around." Raven said.
"Yeah, we weren't serious." Shade agreed.
"Well I am." Thrax said coldly.
Thrax then jumped up in the air and drop kicked both Raven and Shade, hitting them square in the face. The two of the flung back and hit a crate full of C4.
"Damn it you two!" Demo shouted as he ran towards the C4. "You could have set this shit off and we could have been blown to Kingdom Come."
Raven and Shade ignored Demo and wearily got up. They both faced Thrax.
"Okay Red, now you're going to get it." Raven said. "Shade, you're on back up."
"Got it Raven." Shade acknowledged.
By this time, all of the Strykers were watching the battle unfold.
"Shouldn't you stop the two of them before they hurt someone Draco?" Xion asked.
"Nah. I'll let them duke it out. They can see for themselves why it's a bad idea to mess with Thrax." Draco replied.
"Well if you want me and my brother to step in commander, give the word." Rip said.
"I think I'll only need you and Spike to drag Raven and Shade off of the battle field once Thrax is done with them." Draco answered with a laugh.
Raven and Shade both came at Thrax. Raven charged and Shade charged and jumped. Thrax ducked to dodge Shade and then he grabbed Raven's ankle and slammed him into Shade who had landed behind him.
Thrax turned around to face Raven and Shade who were now on their feet. They both went on the offense again, each with a forward roll ending with a kick. Their kicks landed themselves on Thrax's chest. Thrax flew into the air and landed on his back. He laughed, shook off the blow and got back up again. Thrax charged at the pair who jumped over him.
Thrax noticed this and stopped in mid-charge to counter the pair with a roundhouse kick that landed in each of their faces. Both Raven and Shade were knocked to the ground. Thrax then walked over and proceeded to beat the shit out of the two snipers with a barrage of kicks and punches.
After Thrax was satisfied that he had given the snipers a good beating, he spat in their faces and said, "That'll teach you to EVER mess with me again assholes." Thrax then put on his sunglasses and walked away.
"You two want to drag my snipers good for nothing carcasses over here so that we can fix them up?" Draco asked.
"Yeah sure Drac." Rip said. "Let's go Spike."
When Rip and Spike had gone Draco felt a pair of clawed hands wrap around her waist. Draco stretched back, reached her arms up and put them around the back of his neck.
"Nice moves Thrax Daddy." She said smoothly.
"You liked them baby? Let me show you a few more." He offered.
"Mmmm, yes. I'll take you up on your offer." She agreed.
Thrax and Draco began to walk over to the transport chopper.
"Where you two headed?" Diego asked from behind.
"Transport chopper for a little private time." Draco replied back.
"Ah." Diego said with a nod. "I gotcha. I'll keep the boys busy."
"Thanks Diego." Draco said as she climbed into the back of the transport chopper. She giggled as Thrax grabbed her waist from behind.
"Aw, c'mon baby. Let me close the door." Draco said.
"Alright." Thrax replied, working his lips up to her mouth. They kissed passionately as Draco managed to close the door.
"Ah, love." Diego sighed as he walked away.